Herbertstern's Map of Russia, 1550 (photo-lithographic facsimile)Herbertstern's Map of Russia, 1550 (photo-lithographic facsimile).
On the whole, the voyages of the Portuguese to India and the Eastern archipelago, the discovery of America and the first circumnavigation of the globe, exerted little influence on the current ideas regarding the geography of North Asia. A new period in respect of our knowledge of this part of the old world first began with the publication of HERBERSTEIN'SRerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii, Vindobonæ 1549[292]. This work has annexed to it a map with the title "Moscovia Sigismundi liberi baronis in Herberstein Neiperg et Gutnhag. Anno MDXLIX. Hanc tabulam absolvit AUG. HIRSFOGEL Viennæ Austriæ cum gra. et privi. imp.,"[293]which indeed embraces only a small part of Siberia, but shows that a knowledge of North Russia now began to be based on actual observations. A large gulf, marked with the name Mare Glaciale (the present WhiteSea) here projects into the north coast of Russia, from the south there falls into it a large river, called the Dwina. On the banks of the Dwina there are forts or towns with the names Solovoka (Solovets), Pinega, Colmogor, &c. There are to be found on the map besides, the names Mesen, Peczora, Oby,[294]Tumen, &c. Oby runs out of a large lake named Kythay lacus. In the text, mention is made of Irtisch and Papingorod, of walruses and white bears[295]by the coast of the Polar Sea, of the Siberian cedar-tree, of the word Samoyed signifying self-eaters, &c.[296]The walrus is described in great detail. It is mentioned further that the Russian Grand Duke sent out two men, SIMEON THEODOROVITSCH KURBSKI and Knes PIETRO UCHATOI, to explore the lands east of the Petchora, &c.
Herberstein's work, where the narrative of Istoma's circumnavigation of the northern extremity of Europe, which has been already quoted, is to be found, was published only a few years before the first north-east voyages of the English and the Dutch, of which I have before given a detailed account. Through these the northernmost part of European Russia and the westernmost part of the Asiatic Polar Sea were mapped, but an actual knowledge of the north coast of Asia in its entirety was obtained through the conquest of Siberia by the Russians. It is impossible here to give an account of the campaigns, by which the whole of this enormous territory was brought under the sceptre of the Czar of Moscow, or of the private journeys for sport, trade, and the collecting of tribute, by which this conquest was facilitated. But as nearly every step which the Russianinvaders took forward, also extended the knowledge of regions previously quite unknown, I shall mention the years in which during this conquest the most important occurrences in a geographical point of view took place, and give a later more detailed account of the exploratory or military expeditions which led directly to important results affecting the extension of our knowledge of the geography of the region now in question.
The way was prepared for the conquest of Siberia through peaceful commercial treaties[297]which a rich Russian peasant ANIKA, ancestor of the STROGANOV family, entered into with the wild races settled in Western Siberia, whom he even partially induced to pay a yearly tribute to the Czar of Moscow. In connection with this he and his sons, in the middle of the sixteenth century, obtained large grants of land on the rivers Kama and Chusovaja and their tributaries, with the right to build towns and forts there, whereby their riches, previously very considerable, were much increased. The family's extensive possessions, however, were threatened in 1577 by a great danger, when a host of Cossack freebooters, six to seven thousand strong, under the leadership of YERMAK TIMOFEJEV, took flight to the country round Chusovaja in order to avoid the troops which the Czar sent to subdue them and punish them for all the depredations they had committed on the Don, the Caspian Sea and the Volga. In order to get rid of the freebooters, MAXIM STROGANOV, Anika's grandson, not only provided Yermak and his men withthe necessary sustenance, but supported in every way the bold adventurer's plan of entering on a campaign for the conquest of Siberia. This was begun in 1579. In 1580 Yermak passed the Ural, and after several engagements marched in particular against the Tartars living in Western Siberia, along the rivers Tagil and Tura to Tjumen, and thence in 1581 farther along the Tobol and Irtisch to Kutschum Khan's residence Sibir, situated in the neighbourhood of the present Tobolsk. It was this fortress, long since destroyed, which gave its name to the whole north part of Asia.
From this point the Russians, mainly following the great rivers, and passing from one river territory to another at the places where the tributaries almost met, spread out rapidly in all directions. Yermak himself indeed was drowned on the 16th August, 1584, in the river Irtisch, but the adventurers who accompanied him overran in a few decades the whole of the enormous territory lying north of the deserts of Central Asia from Ural to the Pacific, everywhere strengthening their dominion by buildingOstrogs, or small fortresses, at suitable places. It was the noble fur-yielding animals of the extensive forests of Siberia which played the same part with the Russianpromyschleni, as gold with the Spanish adventurers in South America.
At the close of the sixteenth century the Cossacks had already possessed themselves of the greater part of the river territory of the Irtisch-Ob, and sable-hunters had already gone as far north-east[298]as the river Tas, where the sable-huntingwas at one time very productive and occasioned the founding of a town, Mangasej, which however was soon abandoned. In 1610 the Russian fur-hunters went from the river territory of the Tas to the Yenisej, where the town Turuchansk was soon after founded on the Turuchan, a tributary of the Yenisej. The attempt to row down in boats from this point to the Polar Sea, with the view of penetrating farther along the sea coast, failed in consequence of ice obstacles, but led to the discovery of the river Pjäsina and to the levying of tribute from the Samoyeds living there. To get farther eastward the tributaries of the Yenisej were made use of instead of the sea route. Following these the Russians on the upper course of the Tunguska met with the mountain ridge which separates the river territory of the Yenisej from that of the Lena. This ridge was crossed, and on the other side of it a new stream was met with, which in the year 1627 led the adventurers to the Lena, over whose river territory the Cossacks and fur-hunters, faithful to then customs, immediately spread themselves in order to hunt, purchase furs, and above all to impose "jassak" upon the tribes living thereabouts. But they were not satisfied with this. Already in 1636 the Cossack ELISEJ BUSA was sent out with an express commission to explore the rivers beyond, falling into the Polar Sea, and to render tributary the natives living on their banks. He was accompanied by ten Cossacks, to whose company forty fur-hunters afterwards attached themselves. In 1637 he came to the western mouth-arm of the Lena, from which he went along the coast to the river Olenek, where he passed the winter. Next year he returned by land to the Lena, and built there two "kotsches,"[299]in which he descended theriver to the Polar Sea. After five days' successful rowing along the coast to the eastward he discovered the mouth of the Yana. After three days' march up the river he fell in with a Yakut tribe, from whom he got a rich booty of sable and other furs. Here he passed the winter of 1638-39, here too he built himself a new craft, and again starting for the Polar Sea, he came to another river falling into the eastern mouth-arm of the Yana, where he found a Yukagir tribe, living in earth huts, with whom he passed two years more, collecting tribute from the tribes living in the neighbourhood.
At the same time IVANOV POSTNIK discovered by land the river Indigirka. As usual, tribute was collected from the neighbouring Yukagir tribes, yet not without fights, in which the natives at first directed their weapons against the horses the Cossacks had along with them, thinking that the horses were more dangerous than the men. They had not seen horses before. Asimoviewas established, at which sixteen Cossacks were left behind. They built boats, sailed down the river to the Polar Sea to collect tribute, and discovered the river Alasej.
Some years after the river Kolyma appears to have been discovered, and in 1644 the Cossack, MICHAILO STADUCHIN, founded on that river asimovie, which afterwards increased to a small town, Nischni Kolymsk. Here Staduchin got three pieces of information which exerted considerable influence on later exploratory expeditions, for he acquired knowledge of the Chukches, at that time a military race, who possessed the part of North Asia which lay a little further to the east. Further, the natives and the Russian hunters, who swarmed in the region before Staduchin, informed him that in the Polar Sea off the mouths of the Yana and the Indigirka there was a large island, which in clear weather could be seen from land, and which the Chukches reached in winter with reindeer sledges in one day from Chukotska, a river debouching in the Polar Seaeast of the Kolyma. They brought home walrus tusks from the island, which was of considerable size, and the hunters supposed "that it was a continuation of Novaya Zemlya, which is visited by people from Mesen." Wrangel is of opinion that this account refers to no other than Krestovski Island, one of the Bear Islands. This, however, appears to me to be improbable. It is much more likely that it refers partly to the New Siberian Islands, partly to Wrangel Land, and perhaps even to America. That the Russians themselves had not then discovered Ljachoff's, or as it was then also called, Blischni Island, which lies so near the mainland, and is so high that it is impossible to avoid seeing it when one in clear weather sails past Svjatoinos, which lies east of the Yana, is a proof that at that time they had not sailed along the coast between the mouths of the Yana and the Indigirka. Finally, a great river, the Pogytscha, was spoken of, which could be reached in three or four days' sailing eastward from the mouth of the Kolyma. This was the first account which reached the conquerors of Siberia of the great river Anadyr which falls into the Pacific.
These accounts were sufficient to incite the Cossacks and hunters to new expeditions. The beginning was made by ISAI IGNATIEV from Mesen, who, along with several hunters, travelled down the Kolyma in 1646 to the Polar Sea, and then along the coast eastwards. The sea was full of ice, but next the land there was an open channel, in which the explorers sailed two days. They then came to a bay, near whose shore they anchored. Here the Russians had their first meeting with the Chukches, to which reference has already been made. Hence Ignatiev returned to the Kolyma, and the booty was considered so rich and his account of his journey so promising, that preparations were immediately made in order next year to send off a new maritime expedition fitted out on a larger scale to the coast of the Polar Sea.
This time FEODOT ALEXEJEV from Kolmogor was chief ofthe expedition, but along with him was sent, at the request of the hunters, a Cossack in the Russian service in order to guard the rights of the crown. His name was SIMEON IVANOV SIN DESCHNEV; in geographical writings he is commonly known under the name of DESCHNEV. It was intended to search for the mouth of the great river lying towards the east, regarding which some information had been obtained from the natives, and which was believed to fall into the Polar Sea. The first voyage in 1647, with four vessels, was unsuccessful, it is said, because the sea was blocked with ice. But that this was not the real reason is shown by the fact that a new and larger expedition was fitted out the following year with full expectation of success. The crews of the four boats had more probably been considered too weak a force to venture among the Chukches, and the ice had to bear the blame of the retreat. What man could not reproach the conquerors of Siberia with, was pusillanimity and want of perseverance in carrying out a plan which had once been sketched. Resistance always increased their power of action; so also now. Seven boats were fitted out the following year, 1648, all which were to sail down to the Polar Sea, and then along the coast eastwards. The object was to examine closely the unknown land and people there, and to their own advantage and the extension of the Russian power, to collect tribute from the tribes met with during the expedition. Müller states that every boat was manned with about thirty men—a number which appears to me somewhat exaggerated, if we consider the nature of the Siberian craft and the difficulty of feeding so large a number either with provisions earned along with them or obtained by hunting.
Four of the boats are not mentioned further in the narrative; they appear to have returned at an early period. The three others, on the contrary, made a highly remarkable journey. The commanders of them were the Cossacks, GERASIMANKUDINOV and SIMEON DESCHNEV, and the hunter FEODOT ALEXEJEV. Deschnev entertained such hopes of success that before his departure he promised to collect a tribute of seven times forty sable skins. The Siberian archives, according to Miller, contain the following details[300]
On 30/20th June, 1648, a start was made from the Kolyma. The sea was open, at least the boats came without any adventure which Deschnev thought worth the trouble of noting in his narrative to Great Chukotskojnos. Of this cape Deschnev says that it is quite different from the cape at the river Chukotskaja. For it lies between north and north-east, and bends with a rounding towards the Anadyr. On the Russian side a rivulet runs into the sea, at which the Chukches had raised a heap of whales' bones. Right off the cape lie two islands, on which people of Chukch race with perforated lips were seen. From this cape it is possible with a favourable wind to sail to the Anadyr in three days, and the way is not longer by land, because the Anadyr falls into a gulf of the sea. At Chukotskojnos or, according to Wrangel at a "holy promontory," Svjatoinos (Serdze Kamen?) previously reached, Ankudinov's craft was shipwrecked. The crew were saved, and distributed on Deschnev's and Alexejev's boats. On the 30/20th September the Russians had a fight with the Chukchesliving on the coast, in which fight Alexejev was wounded. Soon after Deschnev's and Alexejev's "kotsches" were parted never to meet again.
Deschnev was driven about by storms and head-winds until past the beginning of October. Finally his vessel stranded near the mouth of the river Olutorsk, in 61° N. L. Hence he marched with his twenty-five men to the Anadyr. He had expected to meet with some natives in its lower course, but the region was uninhabited, which caused the invaders much trouble, because they suffered from want of provisions. Although Deschnev could not obtain from the natives any augmentation of the certainly very small supply of food which he carried with him, he succeeded nevertheless in passing the winter in that region. First in the course of the following summer did he fall in with natives, from whom a large tribute was collected, but not without fierce conflicts. Asimoviewas built at the place where afterwards Anadyrski Ostrog was founded. While Deschnev remained here, at a loss as to how, when the boats were broken up, he would be able to return to the Kolyma, or find a way thither by land, there came suddenly on the 5th May/25th April 1650, a new party of hunters to his winter hut.
For the accounts of islands in the Polar Sea, and of the river Pogytscha, which was said to fall into the sea three or four days' journey beyond the Kolyma, had led to the sending out of another expedition under the Cossack STADUCHIN. He started from Yakutsk in boats on the 15th/5th June, 1647, wintered on the Yana, travelled thence in sledges to Indigirka, and there again built boats in which he rowed to the Kolyma. It is to be observed that Staduchin, just because he preferred the land-route to the sea-route between the Yana and the Indigirka, missed discovering the large island in the Polar Sea, of which so much has been said. Next summer (1649) Staduchin again sailed down the river Kolyma to the sea, and then for seven days along its coast eastwards, without finding the mouth of the river sought forby him. He therefore returned with his object unaccomplished, carrying with him a heap of walrus-tusks, which were sent to Yakutsk as an appendix to a proposal to send out hunters to the Polar Sea to hunt for these animals. In the meantime a true idea of the course of the Anadyr had been obtained through statements collected from the natives, and a land-route had become known between its territory and that of the Kolyma. Several Cossacks and hunters now petitioned for the right to settle on the Anadyr, and collect tribute from the tribes in that neighbourhood. This was granted. Some natives were forced to act as guides. The party started under the command of SIMEON MOTORA, and came finally to Deschnev'ssimovieon the Anadyr. Staduchin followed, and traversed the way in seven weeks. He however soon quarrelled with Deschnev and Motora, and parting from them on that account, betook himself to the river Penschina. Deschnev and Motora built themselves boats on the Anadyr in order to prosecute exploratory voyages, but the latter was killed in 1651 in a fight with natives called Anauls. They had been the first of all the natives of the Pacific coast of North Asia to pay "jassak" to Deschnev, and he had already at that time come into collision with them and extirpated one of their tribes.
In 1652 Deschnev travelled down the Anadyr to the river mouth, where he discovered a walrus-bank, whence he brought home walrus-tusks. There afterwards arose a dispute between Deschnev and Selivestrov[301]regarding the rights founded on the discovery of this walrus bank, which came before the authorities at Yakutsk, and it was from the documents relating to it that Müller obtained the information that enabled him to give a narrative of Deschnev's expedition. Only in this way havethe particulars of this remarkable voyage been rescued from complete oblivion.[302]
In 1653 Deschnev gave orders to collect wood to build craft in which he intended to carry home by sea the tribute he had collected to the Kolyma, but he was compelled to desist from want of the necessary materials for the building and equipment of the boats, comforting himself with the statement of the natives that the sea was not always so open as during his first voyage. Compelled by necessity, he remained a year longer at the Anadyr, and in 1654 undertook a new hunting voyage to the walrus-bank, where he met with the before-mentioned Selivestrov. He here came in contact with the natives (Koryäks), and found among them a Yakut woman, who had belonged to Ankudinov. On asking her where her master had gone to, she answered that Feodot and Gerasim (Ankudinov) had died of scurvy, and that their companions had been killed with the exception of some few, who had saved themselves in boats. It appears as if the latter had penetrated along the coast as far as to the river Kamchatka. For when Kamchatka was conquered by Atlassov in 1697 the natives stated that a long time before one FEODOTOV (probably a son of Feodot Alexejev) had lived among them along with some companions, and had married their women. They were venerated almost as gods. They were believed to be invulnerable until they struck another, when the Kamchadals saw their mistake and killed them.[303]
By the expeditions of Deschnev, Staduchin, and theircompanions, the Russians had by degrees become acquainted with the course of the Anadyr and with the tribes living on its banks. But it still remained for them to acquire a more complete knowledge of the islands which were said to be situated in the Polar Sea, and one must be surprised at the extreme difficulties which were encountered in attempting the solution of this apparently very simple geographical problem. The reason indeed was that the Siberian seamen never ventured to leave the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, a precaution which besides is very easily explained when the bad construction of their craft is considered. Along the shore of the Polar Sea on the other hand, a very active communication appears to have taken place between the Lena and the Kolyma, though of those voyages we only know such as in one way or another gave rise to actions before the courts or were characterised by specially remarkable dangers or losses.
In 1650 ANDREJ GORELOJ was sent by sea from Yakutsk to impose tribute on the tribes that lived at the sources of the Indigirka, and on the Moma, a tributary of the Indigirka. He passed Svjatoinos successfully, and reached the mouth of the Kroma, but was there beset by ice, with which he drifted out to sea. After drifting about ten days he was compelled to abandon the vessel, which was soon after nipped, and go on foot over the ice to land. On the 22nd/12th November he came to thesimovieUjandino, where famine prevailed during the winter,because the vessels, that should have brought provisions to the place, had either been lost or been compelled to turn;a statement which proves that at that time a regular navigation took place between certain parts of the coast of the Polar Sea.
The same year, the Cossack, TIMOFEJ BULDAKOV travelled by sea from the Lena to the Kolyma to take over the command of the neighbouring region. He reached the Kroma successfully, but was beset there and drifted out to sea. He thendetermined to endeavour to get to land over the ice. But this was no easy matter. The ice, which already was three feet thick, went suddenly into a thousand pieces, while the vessel drove before a furious gale farther and farther from the shore. This was repeated several times. When the sea at last froze over, the vessel was abandoned, and the party finally succeeded, worn out as they were by hunger, scurvy, work, and cold, in reaching land at the mouth of the Indigirka. The narrative of Buldakov's voyage is, besides, exceedingly remarkable, because a meeting is there spoken of with twelve "kotsches," filled with Cossacks, traders, and hunters, bound partly from the Lena to the rivers lying to the eastward, partly from the Kolyma and Indigirka to the Lena, a circumstance which shows how active the communication then was in the part of the Siberian Polar Sea in question. This is further confirmed by a narrative of NIKIFOR MALGIN. While Knes IVAN PETROVITSCH BARJATINSKY wasvojvodeat Yakutsk (1667-75), Malgin travelled along with a trader, ANDREJ WORIPAJEV, by sea from the Lena to the Kolyma. During this voyage the pilot directed the attention of all on board to an island, lying far out at sea, west of the mouth of the Kolyma. In course of a conversation regarding it, after Malgin had succeeded in reaching the Kolyma, another trader, JAKOB WIÄTKA, stated that on one occasion when he was sailing with nine "kotsches" between the Lena and the Kolyma, three of them had been driven by wind to this island, and that the men who had been sent ashore there, found traces of unknown animals, but no inhabitants.
All these narratives, however, do not appear to have met with full credence. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, accordingly, new explorations and new expeditions were undertaken. A Cossack, JAKOB PERMAKOV, stated that during a voyage between the Lena and the Kolyma, he had seen off Svjatoinos an island, of which he knew not whether it was inhabited or not, and likewise, that off the mouth of the Kolymathere was an island which could be seen from land. In order to make sure of the correctness of this statement, a Cossack, MERCUREJ WAGIN, was sent out. He travelled along with Permakov, in the month of May, in dog-sledges over the ice from Svjatoinos to the island lying off it, that Permakov had seen. They landed there, found it uninhabited and treeless, and fixed its circumference at nine to twelve days' journey. Beyond this island Wagin saw another, which, however, he could not reach for want of provisions. He therefore determined to turn, in order to undertake the journey the following year in a better state of preparation. During the return journey the party suffered severely from hunger, and in order to avoid a, renewal of the dangerous and difficult journey of exploration, the men at last murdered Permakov, Wagin, and his son. The crime was discovered, and the knowledge we possess of this expedition is founded on the confused information obtained during the examination of the murderers. Müller even throws doubts on the truth of the whole narrative.
The attempts which were afterwards made to reach those islands, partly by sea in 1712, by WASILEJ STADUCHIN, partly by dog-sledges in 1714 by ALEXEJ MARKOV and GRIGOREJ KUSAKOV, yielded no result. Ten years afterwards, "the old saga" of the islands in the Polar Sea, induced one SIN BAJORSKI FEODOT AMOSSOV to undertake an expedition with a view to impose tribute on their inhabitants, but he was prevented by ice from reaching his goal. On the way he met with a hunter, IVAN WILLEGIN, who said, that along with another hunter, GRIGOREJ SANKIN, he had travelled over the ice to these islands from the mouth of the river Chukotskaja. He had seen neither men nor trees, but some abandoned huts "Probably this land extends all the way from the mouth of the Yana, past the Indigirka and Kolyma to the region which is inhabited by the Schelags, a Chukch tribe." He had learned this from a Schelag named Kopai, at whose home he had been the preceding year. Inorder to reach this land by sea it was necessary to start from the coast which the Schelags inhabited, because the sea was less covered by ice there.
As Amossov could not reach his goal by sea he travelled thither the same year, in November, 1724, over the ice, but his description of the land differs widely from that of his predecessor, and Müller appears to entertain great doubts of the truthfulness of the narrative[304]. On the ground of a map constructed by the Cossack, Colonel SCHESTAKOV, who, however, according to Müller, could neither read nor write, this new land was introduced into DELISLE and BUACHE'S map, with the addition that the Schelag Kopai lived there, and had there been taken prisoner by the Russians. This is so far incorrect, as Kopai did not live on any island, but on the mainland, and never was prisoner with the Russians, although after having paid tribute to them, he tired of doing so, and killed some of Amossov's people, after which no more was heard of him. Müller complains loudly of the incorrect statement regarding Kopai, but the learned academician commits a much greater mistake, inasmuch as he considers that he ought to leave the numerous accounts of hunters and Cossacks about land and islands in the Siberian Polar Sea completely out of account. All these lands are therefore left out of the map published by the Petersburg Academy in the year 1758[305]. It is in this respect much moreincomplete than the map which accompanies Strahlenberg's book.[306]
Before I begin to sketch the explorations of the great northern expedition, some account remains to be given of the discovery of Kamchatka. It appears from the preceding that Kamchatka was already reached by some of Deschnev's followers, but their important discovery was completely unknown in Moscow. Kamchatka is, however, already mentioned in the narrative of Evert Ysbrants Ides' embassy to China in 1693-95,[307]accounts of it had probably been obtained from the Siberian natives, who are accustomed to wander far and near. These accounts, however, are exceedingly incomplete, and therefore, VOLODOMIR ATLASSOV,piätidesätnik (i.e., commander of fifty men) at Anadyrsk, is considered the proper discoverer of Kamchatka.
While Atlassov was commander at Anadyrsk, he sent out in 1696, the Cossack LUCAS SEMENOV SIN MOROSKO with sixteen men to bring the tribe living to the south under tribute. The commission was executed, and on his return Morosko stated that he not only was among the Koryäks, but had also penetrated to the neighbourhood of the river Kamchatka, and that he took a Kamchadal "ostrog," and found in it some manuscripts in an unknown language, which, according to information afterwards obtained, had belonged to some Japanese who had stranded on the coast of Kamchatka.[308]It was the first hint the conquerorsof Siberia obtained of their being in the neighbourhood of Japan.
The year after Atlassov, with a larger force, followed the way which Morosko had opened up, and penetrated to the river Kamchatka, where as a sign that he had taken possession of the land, he erected a cross with an inscription, which when translated runs thus:In the, year7205 (i.e. 1697)on the 13th July this cross was erected by the piätidesätnik Volodomir Atlassov and his followers, 55men. Atlassov then built on the Kamchatka river asimovie, which was afterwards fortified and named Verchni Kamtschatskoj Ostrog. Hence the Russians extended their power over the land, yet not without resistance, which was first completely broken by the cruel suppression of the rebellion of 1730.
In 1700 Atlassov travelled to Moscow, carrying with him a Japanese, who had been taken prisoner after being shipwrecked on the coast of Kamchatka, and the collected tribute which consisted of the skins of 3,200 sables, 10 sea-otters, 7 beavers, 4 otters, 10 grey foxes and 191 red foxes. He was received graciously, and sent back as commander of the Cossacks in Yakutsk with orders to complete the conquest of Kamchatka. An interruption however happened for some time in the path of Atlassov as a warrior and discoverer, in consequence of his having during his return journey to Yakutsk plundered a Russian vessel laden with Chinese goods, an accessory circumstance which deserves to be mentioned for the light which it throws on the character of this Pizarro of Kamchatka. He was not set free until the year 1706, and then recovered hiscommand in Kamchatka, with strict orders to desist from all arbitrary proceedings and acts of violence, and to do his best for the discovery of new lands. The first part of this order he however complied with only to a limited extent, which gave occasion to repeated complaints[309]and revolts among the already unbridled Cossacks. Finally, in 1711, Atlassov and several other officers were murdered by their own countrymen. In order to atone for this crime, and perhaps to get a little farther from the arm of justice, their murderers, ANZIPHOROV and IVAN KOSIREVSKOJ,[310]undertook to subdue the not yet conquered part of Kamchatka, and the two northernmost of the Kurile Islands. Further information about the countries lying farther south was obtained from some Japanese who were shipwrecked in 1710 on Kamchatka.
At first in order to get to Kamchatka the difficult detour by Anadyrsk was taken. But in the year 1711 the commander at Okotsk, SIN BOJARSKI PETER GUTUROV, was ordered, by the energetic promoter of exploratory expeditions in Eastern Siberia, the Yakutskvoivode, DOROFEJ TRAUERNICHT, to proceed by sea from Okotsk to Kamchatka. But this voyage could not comeoff because at that time there were at Okotsk neither seagoing boats, seamen, nor even men accustomed to the use of the compass. Some years after the governor Prince GAGARIN sent to that town IVAN SOROKAUMOV with twelve Cossacks to make arrangements for this voyage. For want of ships and seamen however this could not now be undertaken, and after Sorokaumov had created great confusion he was imprisoned by the authorities of the place, and sent back to the Governor. Peter I. now commandedthat men acquainted with navigation should be sought for among the Swedish prisoners of war and sent to Okotsk, that they should build a boat there and, provided with a compass, go by sea along with some Cossacks to Kamchatka and return[311]. Thus navigation began on the Sea of Okotsk Among the Swedes who opened it, is mentioned HENRY BUSCH,[312]according to Strahlenberg a Swedish corporal, who had previously been a ship-carpenter. According to Müller, who met with him at Yakutsk as late as 1736, he was born at Hoorn in Holland, had served at several places as a seaman, and finally among the Swedes as a trooper, until he was taken prisoner at Viborg in 1706. He gave Müller the following account of his first voyage across the Sea of Okotsk.
After arriving at Okotsk they had built a vessel, resembling thelodjasused at Archangel and Mesen for sailing on the White Sea and to Novaya Zemlya. The vessel was strong; its length was eight and a half fathoms, its breadth three fathoms, thefreeboard, when the vessel was loaded, three and a half feet. The first voyage took place in June 1716. The voyagers began to sail along the coast towards the north-east, but an unfavourable wind drove the vessel, almost against the will of the seafarers, right across the sea to Kamchatka. The first land sighted was a cape which juts out north of the river Tigil. Being unacquainted with the coast the seafarers hesitated to land. During the delay a change of wind took place, whereby the vessel was driven back towards the coast of Okotsk. The wind again becoming favourable, the vessel was put about and anchored successfully in the Tigil. The men who were sent ashore found the houses deserted. For the Kamchadales being terrified at the large ship had made their escape to the woods. The seafarers sailed on along the coast and landed at several places in order that they might meet with the inhabitants, but for a long time without success, until at last they fell in with a Kamchadal girl, who was collecting edible roots. With her as a guide they soon found dwellings, and even Cossacks, who had been sent out to collect tribute. They wintered at the river Kompakova. During the winter the sea cast up a whale, which had in its carcase a harpoon of European manufacture and with Latin letters. The vessel left the winter haven in the middle of May (new style) 1717, but meeting with ice-fields was beset in them for five and a half weeks. This occasioned great scarcity of provisions. In the end of July the seafarers were again back at Okotsk. From this time there has been regular communication by sea between this town and Kamchatka. The master of the vessel during the first voyage across the Sea of Okotsk was the Cossack SOKOLOV.[313]
MAP OF ASIA.MAP OF ASIA.From on Atlas published, by the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1737.
From what I have stated it follows that, thanks to the fondness of the hunters and Cossacks for adventurous, exploratory expeditions, the current ideas regarding the distribution of the land and the courses of the rivers in north-eastern Asia were in the main correct. But, in consequence of want of knowledge of, or of doubts regarding, Deschnev's discoveries, there prevailed an uncertainty whether Asia at its north-east extremity was connected with America by a small neck of land, in the same way as it is with Africa, or as North and South America are connected with each other, a view which, in consequence of the unscientific necessity of generalising inherent in man, and the wish to have an explanation ofhow the population extended from the old to the new world, was long zealously defended[314]. No one, either European or native, had yet, so far as we know, extended his hunting journeys to the northernmost promontory of Asia, in consequence of which the position which it was assumed to occupy only depended on loose suppositions. It was possible for instance that Asia stretched with a cape as far as to the neighbourhood of the Pole, or that a broad isthmus between the Pjäsina and the Olenek connected the known portion of this quarter of the world with an Asiatic Polar continent. Nor had geographers a single actual determination of position or geographical measurement from the whole of the immense stretch between the mouth of the Ob and Japan, and there was complete uncertainty as to the relative position of the easternmost possessions of the Russians on the one side and of Japan on the other.[315]It was difficult to get the maps of the Russians to correspond with those of the Portuguese and the Dutch, at the point where the discoveries of the different nations touched each other, which also was exceedingly natural, as at that time too limited an extent east and west by 1700 kilometres was commonly assigned to Siberia. In order to investigate this point, in order to fill up the great blank which still existed in the knowledge of the quarter of the world first inhabited byman, and perhaps above all for the purpose of forming new commercial treaties and of discovering new commercial routes, Peter the Great during the latest years of his life arranged one of the greatest geographical expeditions which the history of the world can show. It was not until after his death, however, that it was carried out, and then it went on for a series of years on so large a scale that whole tribes are said to have been impoverished through the severe exactions of transport that were on its account imposed on the inhabitants of the Siberian deserts. Its many different divisions are now comprehended under the name—the Great Northern Expedition. Through the writings of Behring, Müller, Gmelin, Steller, Krascheninnikov and others, this expedition has acquired an important place for all time in the history not only of geography but also of ethnography, zoology, and botany, and even now the inquirer, when the natural conditions of North Asia are in question, must return to these works. I shall therefore, before drawing this chapter to a close, give a brief account of its principal features.
The Great Northern Expedition was ushered in by "the first expedition to Kamchatka". The commander of this expedition was the Dane VITUS BEHRING, who was accompanied by Lieutenant MORTON SPANGBERG, also a Dane by birth, and ALEXEI CHIRIKOV They left St. Petersburg in February 1725, and took the land route across Siberia, carrying with them the necessary materials with which in Kamchatka to build and equip the vessel with which they should make their voyage of exploration. More than three years were required for this voyage, or rather for this geographico-scientific campaign, in which for the transport of the stores and the shipbuilding material that had to be taken from Europe the rivers Irtisch, Ob, Ket, Yenisej, Tunguska, Ilim, Aldan, Maja, Yudoma, and Urak were taken advantage of. It was not until the 15th/4th April that a beginning could be made at Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog of thebuilding of the vessel, which was launched on the 21st/10th July, and on the 31st/20th of the same month Behring began his voyage.
He sailed in a north-easterly direction along the coast of Kamchatka, which he surveyed. On the 19th/8th August in 64° 30' N. L. he fell in with Chukches, who had still a reputation among the Russians for invincible courage and ferocity. First one of them came to the vessel, swimming on two inflated seal-skins, "to inquire what was intended by the vessel's coming thither," after which their skin-boat lay to. Conversation was carried on with them by means of a Koryäk interpreter. On the 21st/10th August St. Lawrence Islands as discovered, and on the 26th/15th of the same month the explorers sailed past the north-eastern promontory of Asia in 67° 18' and observed that the coast trends to the west from that point, as the Chukches had before informed them. Behring on this account considered that he had fulfilled his commission to ascertain whether Asia and America were separated, and he now determined to turn, "partly because if the voyage were continued along the coast ice might be met with, from which it might not be so easy to get clear, partly on account of the fogs, which had already begun to prevail, and partly because it would be impossible, if a longer stay were made in these regions, to get back the same summer to Kamchatka. There could be no question of passing the winter off the coast of the Chukch Peninsula, because that would have been to expose the expedition to certain destruction, either by being wrecked on the jagged rocks of the open unknown coast, or by perishing from want of fuel, or finally by dying under the hands of the fierce unconquered Chukches". On the 1st Oct/20th Sept the vessel returned to Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog.[316]It was during this voyage thatthe sound, which has since obtained the name of Behring's Straits, is considered to have been discovered. But it is now known that this discovery properly belongs to the gallant hunter Deschnev, who sailed through these straits eighty years before. I suppose therefore that the geographical world will with pleasure embrace the proposal to attach the name of Deschnev along with that of Behring to this part of our globe; which may be done by substituting Cape Deschnev, as the name of the easternmost promontory of Asia, for that of East Cape, an appellation which is misleading and unsuitable in in many respects. Several statements by Kamchadales regarding a great country towards the east on the other side of the sea, induced Behring the following year to sail away in order to ascertain whether this was the case. In consequence of unfavourable weather he did not succeed in reaching the coast of America, but returned with his object unaccomplished, after which he sailed to Okotsk, where he arrived on the 3rd Aug/23rd July 1729. Hence he betook himself immediately to St. Petersburg, which he reached after a journey of six months and nine days.
In maps published during Behring's absence, partly by Swedish officers who had returned from imprisonment in Siberia,[317]Kamchatka had been delineated with so long an extension towards the south that this peninsula was connected with Yezo, the northernmost of the large Japanese islands. The distance between Kamchatka and Japan, rich in wares, would thus have been quite inconsiderable. This nearness was believed to be further confirmed by another Japanese ship, manned by seventeen men and laden with silk, rice, and paper, having stranded in July 1729 on Kamchatka, south of Avatscha Bay. In this neighbourhood there was, along with a number of natives, asmall party of Cossacks under the command of ANDREAS SCHTINNIKOV. He at first accepted several presents from the shipwrecked men, but afterwards withdrew from the place where the wreck took place. When the Japanese on this account rowed on in their boats along the coast, Schtinnikov gave orders to follow them in abaydarand kill them all but two. The cruel deed was carried into execution, on which the malefactors took possession of the goods, and broke in pieces the boats in order to obtain the iron with which the boards were fastened together. The two Japanese who were saved were carried to Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog. Here Schtinnikov was imprisoned and hanged for his crime. The Japanese were sent to St. Petersburg, where they learned the Russian language and were converted to Christianity, while some Russians in their turn learned Japanese. The Japanese died between 1736 and 1739. Both were from Satsuma; the elder, SOSA, had been a merchant, and the younger, GONSA, was a pilot's son. Their vessel had been bound for Osaka, but having been carried out of its course by a storm, had drifted about at sea for six months, stranding at last with so unfortunate a result for the greater part of the crew.
This sad occurrence further reminds us that much still remained unaccomplished with respect to the geography of north-eastern Asia. Behring's Kamchatka expedition had besides yielded no information regarding the position of the northern extremity of Asia, or of the part of America lying opposite to Kamchatka. A number of grave doubts appear besides to have been started as to the correctness of the observations during Behring's first voyage. All this induced him to make proposals for a continuation of his explorations, offering, along with his former companions, Spangberg and Chirikov, to take the command of the maritime expedition which was to start from Kamchatka to solve the questions proposed, both eastwards to ascertain the position of the east coast of Asia in relation to the west coast of America, andsouthwards to connect the areas which the West-Europeans and the Russians were exploring.
The Russian senate, the Board of Admiralty, and the Academy of Sciences were commissioned to develop this plan and to carry it into execution. With respect to the way in which the commission was executed I may be allowed to refer to Müller's oft-quoted work, and to a paper by VON BAER;Peters des Grossen Verdienste um die Erweiterung der geographischen Kenntnisse (Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Russischen Reiches, B. 16, St. Petersburg, 1872). Here I can only mention that it was principally through the untiring interest which KIRILOV, the secretary of the senate, took in the undertaking, that it attained such a development that it may be said to have been perhaps the greatest scientific expedition which has ever been sent out by any country. It was determined at the same time not only to ascertain the extent of Siberia to the north and east, but also to examine its hitherto almost unknown ethnographical and natural conditions. For this purpose the Great Northern Expedition was divided into the following divisions:—
1.An expedition to start from Archangel for the Ob[318]—For this expedition twokotscheswere employed, theOband theExpedition52-1/2 feet long, 14 feet broad, and 8 feet deep, each manned with 20 men. The vessels, which were under the command of Lieutenants PAULOV and MURAVJEV, left Archangel on the 15th/4th July, 1734. The first summer they only reached Mutnoi Saliv in the Kara Sea, whence they returned to the Petchora and wintered at Pustosersk. The following year they broke up inJune, but did not penetrate farther than in 1734. The unfavourable issue was ascribed to the vessels' unserviceableness for voyages in the Polar Sea, in consequence of which the Board of Admiralty ordered two other boats, 50 to 60 feet long, to be built for the expedition, which were placed under the command of SKURATOV and SUCHOTIN, Muravjev being besides replaced by MALYGIN who sailed with the old vessels on the 7th June/27th May 1736, down the Petchora river, at whose mouth theExpeditionwas wrecked. Without permitting himself to be frightened by this, Malygin ordered his men to go on board the other vessel, in which with great dangers and difficulties they penetrated through the drift-ice to Dolgoi Island. Here on the 18th/7th August they fell in with the new vessels sent from Archangel. Suchotin was now sent back to Archangel on board theOb; Malygin and Skuratov sailed in the new vessels to the Kara river and wintered there. During the winter 1736-1737 the men suffered only slightly from scurvy, which was cured by anti-scorbutic plants growing in the region. The ice in the Kara river did not break up until the 12th/1st June, but so much ice still drifted about in the sea that a start could not be made until the 14th/3rd July. On the 4th Aug/24th July the vessels anchored in the sound which I have named Malygin Sound. Here they were detained by head winds 25 days. Then they sailed on round a cape, which the Samoyeds call Yalmal, up the Gulf of Ob to the mouth of the river, which was reached on the 22nd/11th September, 1737, and then up the river to Soswa, where the vessels were laid up in winter quarters. The crews were taken to Beresov. Malygin returned to Petersburg, after having given Lieut. Skuratov and the second mate Golovin a commission to carry the vessels back to the Dwina the following year. They did not get back until August 1739. The return voyage thus also occupied two years, and was attended with much difficulty and danger.
Six years in all had thus gone to the voyage from Archangel to the Ob and back, which now can be accomplished withoutdifficulty in a single summer. By means of Malygin's and Skuratov's voyages, and of a land journey which the land-measurer Selifontov undertook during July and August 1736 with reindeer along the west coast of Yalmal and then by boat to Beli Ostrov, Yalmal and the south coast of this large island were mapped, it would appear in the main correctly.[319]
2.An expedition to sail from the Ob to the Yenisej—For this Behring ordered a double sloop, theTobol, 70 feet long, 15 feet broad, and 8 feet deep, to be built at Tobolsk. The vessel had two masts, was armed with two small cannon, and was manned with 53 men, among whom were a land-measurer and a priest. The commander was Lieut. OWZYN. They sailed in company with some small craft carrying provisions from Tobolsk on the 26th/15th May, 1734, and came to the Gulf of Ob through the easternmost mouth-arm of the river on the 30th/19th June. There a storm damaged the tender-vessels. Of the timber of those which had sustained most damage, a storehouse was erected in 66° 36' N.L., in which the provisions landed from the unserviceable craft were placed. When this was done they sailed on, but slowly in consequence of unfavourable winds and shallow water, so that it was not until the 17th/6th August that they reached 70° 4' N.L. Hence they returned to Obdorsk, arriving there on the 15th/4th September. Seven days afterwards the Ob was covered with ice.
The following spring the voyage was resumed. On the 17th/6th June they came to the depôt formed the preceding year. At first ice formed an obstacle, but on the 31st/20th July it broke up, and the navigable water became clear. The crew had now begun to suffer so severely from scurvy, that of 53 only 17 were in good health; Owzyn therefore turned, that he might bring his sick men to Tobolsk. He reached this town on the 17th/6th October, and the river froze over soon after. Owzyn now travelled to St. Petersburg in order to give in, in person, reports of hisunsuccessful voyages and to make suggestions as to the measures that ought to be taken to ensure better success to next year's undertaking. His proposals on this point were mainly in the direction of building at Tobolsk a new vessel, which should accompany theTobolduring the dangerous voyage, and confer upon it greater safety. This was approved by the Board of Admiralty, but the vessel could not be got ready till the summer of 1736, on which account that year's voyage was undertaken in the same way as that of the preceding year, and with the same success. The new vessel was not ready until 1737. It came with the shipbuilder KOSCHELEV and the mate MININ on the 16th/5th June to Obdorsk, where Owzyn took command of it, handing over the old one to Koschelev, and beginning his fourth voyage down the Gulf of Ob. This time he had better success. After sailing past Gyda Bay, he came, without meeting with any serious obstacles from ice, on the 27th/16th August to Cape Mattesol, and on the 12th/1st September to a storehouse erected for the expedition by the care of the authorities on the bank of the Yenisej in 71° 33' N.L. The Yenisej froze over on the 21st/10th October.
Four years had thus gone to the accomplishment of Owzyn's purpose, but it can scarcely be doubted that if he had not turned so early in the season, and if he had had steam, or a sailing vessel of the present day at his disposal he would have been able to sail from the Ob to the Yenisej in a few weeks. It is at all events Owzyn's perseverance to which we are in great measure indebted for the mapping of the Gulf of Ob, and the Bays of Tas and Gyda[320].
3.Voyages from the Yenisej towards Cape Taimur.—In the winter of 1738 Owzyn and Koschelev were called to St. Petersburg to answer for themselves with reference to a complaint lodged against them by the men under their command[321]. Intheir room Minin got the command of the expedition which was to endeavour to penetrate farther eastwards along the coast of the Polar Sea. The two first summers, 1738 and 1739, Minin could not get further than to the northernmostsumovieson the Yenisej. But in 1740 he succeeded, as it appears in pretty open water, in reaching on the west coast of the Taimur Peninsula the latitude of 75° 15'. Here he turned on the 1st Sept./21st Aug. on account of "impenetrable" ice, but mainly in consequence of the late season of the year. The preceding winter Minin had sent his mate STERLEGOV in sledges to examine the coast. On the 25th/14th April he reached 75° 26' N. L., and there erected a stone cairn on a rock jutting out into the sea. Many open places appear to have been seen in the offing. Minin and his party returned on account of snow-blindness, and during the return voyage rested for a time at asumovieon the river Pjäsina, whose existence there shows how far the Russian hunters had extended their journeys[322].
4.Voyage from the Lena Westward—On the 30th July/11th June 1735, two expeditions started from Yakutsk, each with its double sloop, accompanied by a number of boats carrying provisions. One of these double sloops was to go in an easterly direction under the command of Lieut. LASSINIUS. I shall give an account of his voyage farther on. The other was commanded by Lieut.PRONTSCHISCHEV, whose object was to go from the Lena westwards, if possible, to the Yenisej. The voyage down the river was successful and pleasant. The river was from four to nine fathoms deep, and on its banks, overgrown with birch and pine, there were numerous tents and dwelling-houses whose inhabitants were engaged in fishing, which gave the neighbourhood of the river a lively and pleasant appearance[323]. On the 13th/2nd August the explorers came to the mouth of the river, which here divides into five arms, of which the easternmost was chosen for sailing down to the Polar Sea. Here the two seafarers were to part. Prontschischev staid at the river-mouth till the 25th/14th August. He then sailed in 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 fathoms water along the shore of the islands which are formed by the mouth-arms of the Lena. On the 6th Sept./26th Aug. he anchored in the mouth of the Olenek. A little way up the river some dwelling-houses were met with, which hunters had built for use during summer. These were put in order for winter, which passed happily. On the 2nd July/21st June the ice broke up at the winter quarters, but in the sea it lay still until the 14th/3rd August, and it was only then that Prontschischev could go to sea. The course was shaped for the north-east. The Chatanga was reached on the 24th/13th August. On the beach, in 74° 48' N. L., a hut was met with in which were found newly baked bread and some dogs, and which therefore appeared to belong to some Russian hunters absent at the time. While sailing on along the coast the explorers, after having passed two bays projecting into the land, came to an inlet which they erroneously took for the mouth of the Taimur river. Among the reasons for this supposition is mentioned the immense number of gullswhich swarmed round the vessel in that region. The bay was covered with fast ice, "which probably never breaks up," and broad ice-fields stretched out to sea from the coast, on which Polar bears were seen.
On the 31st/20th August, in 77° 29' N. L., the vessel was suddenly surrounded with so large masses of ice that it could make no further progress, and was every instant in danger of being nipped. Prontschischev therefore determined to turn, but this at first was rendered impossible by a complete calm, a crust of ice being formed at the same time in open places between the pieces of drift-ice. If the latitude stated is correct, the turning point lay quite close to the northernmost promontory of Asia. With a better vessel, and above all with the help of steam, Prontschischev would certainly have rounded it. The unbroken ice which he mentioned several times in his narrative, ought probably to be interpreted as belts of pretty closely packed drift-ice. Many times during my Arctic voyages have I sailed through belts of ice which, when observed from a boat some hundred yards from their borders, have been reported as immense unbroken ice-fields. On the 5th Sept./25th Aug. a high north wind began to blow which drove the vessel, with the surrounding ice-fields, towards the south. The voyagers had doubts as to then being saved, but the gusts of wind broke up the ice so that the vessel got free and could sail to the mouth of the Chatanga, which, however, was already frozen over. The explorers were therefore compelled to continue their voyage towards the Olenek, whose mouth was reached on the 8th Sept./28th Aug. In the neighbourhood of the haven which they intended to make, they were driven about by contrary winds and drift-ice about six days more, exposed to cold and wet, and worn out by exertions and privations of every description. Prontschischev, who before had been sick, died of his illness on the 10th Sept./30th Aug. to the great sorrow of his men, by whom he was held in great regard. The mate, CHELYUSKIN, now took the command. Onthe 14th/3rd Sept. he succeeded in carrying his vessel into the river Olenek. On its bank Prontschischev was buried with all the solemnities which circumstances permitted. To Prontschischev's melancholy fate there attaches an interest which is quite unique in the history of the Arctic exploratory voyages. He was newly married when he started. His young wife accompanied him on his journey, took part in his dangers and sufferings, survived him only two days, and now rests by his side in the grave on the desolate shore of the Polar Sea.
On the 9th Oct./28th Sept. the Olenek was frozen over and the winter became very severe for Chelyuskin and his companions. The following summer they returned to Yakutsk convinced of the impossibility of sailing round the north point of Asia, and as Behring was no longer to be found in that town, Chelyuskin started for St. Petersburg in order to give an oral account of Prontschischev's voyages. The Board of Admiralty, however, did not favour Chelyuskin's views, but considered that another attempt ought to be made by land, but if this, too, was unsuccessful, that the coast should be surveyed by land journeys. Lieut. CHARITON LAPTEV was appointed to carry out this last attempt to reach the Yenisej by sea from the Lena.
Laptev, accompanied by a number of small craft carrying provisions, left Yakutsk on the 20th/9th July, 1739, and on the 31st/20th of the same month reached the mouth-arm of the Lena called Krestovskoj, on which he built, on a point jutting out into the sea, a high signal tower, one of the few monuments that are to be found on the north coast of Asia, and which is on that account mentioned by succeeding travellers in those regions. He sailed hence along the coast past the mouth of the Olenek and past a large bay to which, for what reason I know not, he gave the purely Swedish name of Nordvik. This bay was still covered with unbroken ice. After having been beset for several days in Chatanga Bay, the voyagers on the 31st/20th August reached Cape Thaddeus, where the vessel was anchored the following day in76° 47' N. L. A signal tower was built on the extremity of the cape, and the land-measurer CHEKIN was sent to examine the neighbouring territory, and Chelyuskin to search for the mouth of the river Taimur. Chekin could carry out no geodetic work on account of mist. Chelyuskin again reported that the whole bay and the sea in the offing were, as far as the eye could reach, covered with unbroken ice This induced Laptev to turn. After many difficulties among the ice, he came, on the 7th Sept./27th Aug. to the confluence of the river Bludnaya with the Chatanga. Here the winter was passed among a tribe of Tunguses Irving on the spot, who owned no reindeer, and were therefore settled. They used dogs as draught animals, and appear to have carried on a mode of life resembling that of the coast Chukches.
In spring Chekin was sent to map the coast between the Taimur and the Pjäsina. With thirty dog-sledges and accompanied by a nomad Tunguse with eighteen reindeer,[324]he travelled over land to the Taimur river, followed its course to the sea, and then the coast towards the west of a distance of 100 versts. Scarcity of provisions and food for his dogs compelled him to turn. Laptev himself, convinced as he was of the impossibility of rounding the north point of Asia, now wished to carry back his vessel and the most of his stores to the Lena. After having with great danger and difficulty sailed down the river to the Polar Sea, reaching it on the 10th Aug./30th July, the vessel on the 24th/13th was beset and nipped between pieces of ice, according to a statement on a Russian map published in 1876 by the Hydrographical Department in St. Petersburg, on the east coast of the Taimur Peninsula in 75° 30' N.L. Six days after there was a strong frost, so that thin ice was formed between the blocks of drift-ice. Somefoolhardy fellows went over the weakly frozen together pieces of ice to land. Three days after Laptev himself and the rest of the men could leave the vessel. Several streams, still unfrozen, lying between them and their old winter station, however, prevented them from going further. They endeavoured to get protection from the cold by digging pits in the frozen earth and lying down in them by turns one after the other. The men were sent daily to the vessel to fetch as much as possible of the provisions left behind, but on the 10th Sept./29th Aug. the ice again broke up, and carried the abandoned vessel out to sea.
By the 2nd Oct./21st Sept. the streams at last had frozen so much that the return journey could be begun to the former year's winter station distant more than 500 kilometres. The journey through the desolatetundra, perhaps never before trodden by the foot of man, was attended with extreme difficulties, and it was twenty-five days before Laptev and his men could again rest in a warmed hut and get hot food. Twelve men perished of cold and exhaustion. Laptev now determined to remain here during the winter and to go the following spring over thetundrato the Yenisej, where he hoped to find depôts with provisions and ammunition. Nor did he now remain inactive. For he did not wish to return until the surveys were complete. For want of vessels these were to be made by land. Such of the men as were not required were therefore sent in spring over thetundrato the Yenisej and the rest divided into three parties under Laptev himself, Chekin, and Chelyuskin, who were to survey each his portion of the coast between the Chatanga and the Pjäsina and then meet at the Yenisej. These journeys were successfully accomplished, the explorers travelled several times without, it would appear, excessive difficulty, over the desolatetundrabetween the Chatanga and the Taimur rivers, discovered Lake Taimur, and surveyed considerable stretches of the coast. But when they were all again assembled at Dudino, it was found that the north point of Asia had not yet been travelled round andsurveyed. This was done in 1742 by Chelyuskin in the course of a new sledge journey, of which the particulars are only incompletely known, evidently because Chelyuskin's statement, that he had reached the northernmost point of Asia, was doubted down to the most recent times. After the voyage of theVega, however, there can be no more doubt on this point.[325]
5.Voyages from the Lena Eastward—During these Lieutenant Lassinius and after his death Lieutenant DMITRI LAPTEV had the command. A double sloop was built at Yakutsk for the voyage of Lassinius. As I have already mentioned, he left this town, accompanied by several cargo-boats, at the same time as Prontschischev, and both sailed together down the Lena to its mouth. Lassinius was able to sail to the eastward as early as the 20th/9th August. Four days after he came upon so much drift-ice that he was compelled to lie to at the mouth of the river, 120 versts to the east of the easternmost mouth-arm of the Lena. Here abundance of driftwood was met with, and the stock of provisions appears also to have been large, but notwithstanding this, scurvy broke out during the winter. Lassinius himself and most of his men died. On being informed of this, Behring sent a relieving party, consisting of Lieutenant CHERBININ and fourteen men to Lassinius' winter quarters. On their arrival on the 15th/4th June they found only the priest, the mate, and seven sailors alive of the fifty-three men who had started with Lassinius the foregoing year from Yakutsk. These too were so ill that some of them died during the return journey to Yakutsk. Dmitri Laptev and a sufficient number of men, were sent at the sametime to take possession of the ship and renew the attempt to sail eastwards. He went to sea on the 10th Aug./30th July. At first he had to contend with serious obstacles from ice, and when at last he reached open water he thought himself compelled to turn on account of the advanced season of the year. On the 2nd Sept./22nd Aug. he came again to the Bychov mouth-arm of the Lena, up which he found it difficult to make his way on account of the many unknown shoals. On the 19th/8th September the river was frozen over. He wintered a little distance from the mouth, and now again scurvy made its appearance, but was cured by constant exercise in the open air and by a decoction of cedar cones. In a report sent from this place, Dmitri Laptev declared that it was quite impossible to round the two projecting promontories between the Lena and the Indigirka, Capes Borchaja and Svjatoinos, because, according to the unanimous statement of several Yakuts living in the region, the ice there never melts or even loosens from the beach. With Behring's permission he travelled to St. Petersburg to lay the necessary information before the Board of Admiralty. The Board determined that another attempt should be made by sea, and, if that was unsuccessful, that the coast should be surveyed by means of land journeys.
It is now easy to see what was the cause of the unfortunate issue of these two attempts to sail to the eastward. The explorers had vessels which were unsuitable for cruising, they turned too early in the season, and in consequence of their unwillingness to go far from land they sailed into the great bays east of the Lena, from which no large river carries away the masses of ice that have been formed there during the winter, or that have been drifted thither from the sea. Dmitri Laptev and his companions besides appear to have had a certain dislike to the commission intrusted to them, and, differing from Deschnev, they thus wanted the first condition of success—the fixed conviction of the possibility of attaining their object.
By order of the Board of Admiralty Dmitri Laptev at all events began his second voyage, and now falsified his own prediction, by rounding the two capes which he believed to be always surrounded by unbroken ice. After he had passed them his vessel was frozen in on the 20th/9th September. Laptev had no idea at what point of the coast he was, or how far he was from land. He remained in this unpleasant state for eleven days, at the close of which one of the mates who had been sent out from the vessel in a boat on the 11th Sept./31st Aug. returned on foot over the ice and reported that they were not far from the mouth of the Indigirka. Several Yakuts had settled on the neighbouring coast, where was also a Russiansimovie. Laptev and his men wintered there, and examined the surrounding country. The surveyor KINDÄKOV was sent out to map the coast to the Kolyma. Among other things he observed that the sea here was very shallow near the shore, and that driftwood was wanting at the mouth of the Indigirka, but was found in large masses in the interior, 30 versts from the coast.
The following year, 1740, Laptev repaired as well as he could his vessel, which had been injured during the voyage of the preceding year, and then went again to sea on the 11th Aug./31st July. On the 14th/3rd August he passed one of the Bear Islands, fixing its latitude at 71° 0'. On the 25th/14th August, when Great Cape Baranov was reached, the progress of the vessel was arrested by masses of ice that extended as far as the eye could reach. Laptev now turned and sought for winter quarters on the Kolyma. On the 19th/8th July, 1741, this river became open, and Laptev went to sea to continue his voyage eastwards, but did not now succeed in rounding Great Cape Baranov. He was now fully convinced of the impossibility of reaching the Anadyr by sea, on which account he determined to penetrate to that river by land in order to survey it. This he did in the years 1741 and 1742. Thus ended the voyages of Dmitri Laptev, giving evidence if not of distinguished seamanship, of great perseverance,undaunted resolution, and fidelity to the trust committed to him.[326]
6.Voyage for the purpose of exploring and surveying the coast of America—For this purpose Behring fitted out at Okotsk two vessels, of which he himself took the command of one,St. Paul, while the other,St. Peter,, was placed under CHIRIKOV. They left Okotsk in 1740, and being prevented by shoal water from entering Bolschaja Reka, they both wintered in Avatscha Bay, whose excellent haven was called, from the names of the ships, Port Peter-Paul. On the 15th/4th June they left this haven, the naturalist GEORG WILHELM STELLER having first gone on board Behring's and the astronomer LOUIS DE L'ISLE DE LA CROYÈRE Chirikov's vessel. The course was shaped at first for the S.S.E., but afterwards, when no land could be discovered in this direction, for the N.E. and E. During a storm on the 1st July/20th June the vessels were separated. On the 29th/18th July Behring reached the coast of America in 58° to 59° N.L. A short distance from the shore Steller discovered here a splendid volcano, which was named St. Elias. The coast was inhabited, but the inhabitants fled when the vessel approached. From this point Behring wished to sail in a north-westerly direction to that promontory of Asia which formed the turning-point of his first voyage. It was however only with difficulty that in the almost constant fog the peninsula of Alaska could be rounded and the vessel could sail forward among the Aleutian island groups. Scurvy now broke out among the crew, and the commander himself sufferedseverely from it, on which account the command was mainly in the hands of Lieut. WAXEL. At an island the explorers came into contact with the natives, who at first were quite friendly, until one of them was offered brandy. He tasted the liquor, and was thereby so terrified that no gifts could calm his uneasiness. On this account those of the crew who were on land were ordered to come on board, but the savages wished to detain their guests. At last the Russians were set free, but a Koryäk whom they had taken with them as an interpreter was kept behind. In order to get him set at liberty, Waxel ordered two musket salvos to be fired over the heads of the natives, with the result that they all fell flat down from fright, and the Koryäk had an opportunity of making his escape. Now the fire-water is a liquor in great request among these savages, and they are not frightened at the firing of salvos of musketry.